Genesis | Book One, The Genesis Series

SIXTEEN

The aching weight of consciousness flooded through Troy's body as he groaned. Waking up sucked.

Whatever his bruised cheek was pressed against smelled different from his pillow-and was much more uncomfortable. Muzzily, he touched the battered black granite and remembered where he was.

He was in The Cortex once again. Director Callan was still chastising them for sneaking out and going on an unauthorized mission.

"I specifically told you that we had it covered." The muscular director tapped his hand on the mangled granite table, his stern gaze directed at Kai the entire time.

He didn't utter a word. Troy knew that the guy was tuning the director's annoying voice out, because he knew suppressed anger when he saw it. He wasn't thinking about the punishment he'd receive.

He was thinking about Ajax.

"Well we had to do something." Amber spoke up, her voice louder and more stern than usual. "Elias killed that man right in front of us. He was only eighteen years old."

"She's right." Adam chimed in. "And that was only a demonstration of his power. There's probably thousands of people like Lance, still locked up. How would you feel if your son or daughter was captured by that maniac?"

The muscular, blocky director pinched the bridge of his nose as a large sigh exited his mouth. "Actually, I would know a thing or two about that, or something close to it, at least."

"What? What are you talking about?" Bianca asked lazily, straightening up her posture. She brushed her curly, black hair out of her face as her head leaned to the side.

"A few months ago, my daughter, Eliza, went missing. She's 17 years old, the same age as most of you. We've been searching for her for months, but we still haven't found any trace of her."

Bianca's face fell to the floor like a deflated air balloon.

"We went through countless police stations, databases, detectives, no one was able to locate her. Not even Agent Owens, my highest-ranking agent. That's why I didn't want the seven of you out in the field. I would never want your parents feeling the same way I do right now."

"Yeah, well, you were right." Kai finally spoke, his voice plagued with failure as everyone turned to him. "We're not cut out for this. I was no match for Elias, and on top of that, those crates in the cargo bay never got shipped inside."

"Crates?" Director Callan asked, clearly confused as he arched an eyebrow at the young soldier.

"Yeah. You know, those big, wooden boxes that you put stuff in?" Dylo chimed in, shaping a box with his hands.

"I never authorized any shipments to Primus Industries. There were specific orders to only recover the detained Genesis agents and return to the compound. What was inside those crates?"

"I have no clue." Dylo replied, the rate of his speech speeding up drastically. "We didn't have enough time to look. We were too busy kickin' ass, you know? Well, maybe except for Kai. He totally got his butt kicked."

Kai scowled at the blond.

"I thought it would be something like Genodium, at first," Adam said, "but that wouldn't make any sense. Why would someone just hand something like that over to Primus?"